The Emperor's Gift Cherry of Kamigamo

This weeping cherry began its life somewhere inside the Kyoto Imperial Palace grounds before Emperor Komei, who reigned from 1846 to 1867 and was the father of the Meiji Emperor, had it given to Kamigamo Shrine. That gift is the source of its name, Gosho-zakura, palace cherry, and the reason a cherry tree with no natural connection to Kamigamo's centuries-old shrine complex has stood on the approach path between its first and second torii gates for roughly a century and a half regardless. It blooms alongside a second named cherry, Saio-zakura, whose deep red flowers offer a contrast to Gosho-zakura's white, so that visitors walking the approach in late March or early April see two named, individually storied trees rather than an anonymous cherry avenue. Kamigamo Shrine itself, formally Kamowakeikazuchi Shrine, is one of Kyoto's oldest religious sites and a UNESCO World Heritage component, its grounds predating this cherry by many centuries; the tree is a relatively recent addition to a very old place, and its imperial provenance is what earns it a place among the shrine's named, individually recognized trees rather than the roughly 200 unnamed cherries also growing on the grounds.